SPIEF: Russian IT Industry will Shift towards Emerging Markets Through More Partnerships and Innovation

St. Petersburg, Russia, May 26, 2014 - The main prospects for Russian information technology sector, an internationally competitive sector of Russia’s economy with globally sough-after talent, lies in partnerships with emerging markets through developing innovation. That was the message of some leading industry experts at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum’s (SPIEF) annual discussion on IT.

SPIEF, an annual meeting of senior policymakers, business leaders and experts across industries to discuss business with Russia, gathered major stakeholders in the IT industry, including senior officials, business executives, academics and industry associations leaders. This year’s expert discussion focussed on Russia's IT sector futures in exploring new markets, sustaining best talent and workforce and pursuing the most effective strategy.

Russia’s Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov welcomed the participants on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation. One of key messages of IT industry leaders’ discussion pointed to the need for capitalising on the strategic capabilities of technologies on the global markets. Kirill Filippov, Chief Executive of SPB TV, a major player in digital media solutions globally, stated that the best prospects for Russian IT sector are in developing opportunities with emerging markets through innovation and a geographically diverse strategy. “Russian IT companies present interest for emerging markets for a variety of reasons but the main one is that we offer unique partnership models with high quality products and services”, said Mr Filippov. He highlighted that “there are great opportunities for IT industry in emerging markets for innovation because of better norms and regulations, unlike in Europe or North America, where the regulatory and normative environment slow down innovation which lead to losses in money, time and other things”.

The experts discussed the importance of convergence technologies, which is a product of multidisciplinary collaboration and is in demand globally, as well as how technology should create new markets and what strategies should fill emerging new niche sectors.

Valentin Makarov, President of RUSSOFT, Russia’s national association of software developers, noted: “Russian software companies are well integrated in the most advanced convergence areas such as bio-, nano-, socio-, and automotive. We are present in all developed markets, which we have no intentions to leave. We are in an active propagation in the emerging markets too”.

Apart from investment figures, Russia’s strengths in IT education, training, research and development globally were also major subjects in the discussion. Sergey Plugotarenko, Director of the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC), a major IT industry association, who moderated the discussion, reported: “Russia’s IT sector is most attractive for most venture investors, in fact, the industry received 80% of all investment deals in 2013, totaling USD 916 million just for the first 9 months of the last year.” Furthermore, commenting on talent, he noted that “Russia’s internet-focussed companies account for over 1,3 million people and this figure is only to rise”.

Agreeing with that, SPB TV’s Kirill Filippov, however, highlighted that the effective model would be that IT companies with roots in Russia should not only “think Russian” but “act as international companies with several affiliates abroad at global locations in their operations”. He noted that SPB TV is an international company that has its R&D base in Russia, also pointing out to the likes of Kaspersky, JetBrains, IC, Gamos and some others.

About SPB TV

SPB TV is one of the world's leading providers of end-to-end OTT TV, IPTV and mobile TV solutions for video content delivery to multiscreen devices. SPB TV's solutions for mobile TV are implemented by major mobile operators, including MTS, Beeline and StarHub, and have received recognition from mobile device producers the world over. The high quality of the company's technological solutions has been honoured by numerous prestigious international awards, including CSI Awards, TV Technology Europe STAR Awards, Director, the Russian national ‘Big Digit’ Award, the Russian Mobile VAS Awards, the Mobile Entertainment Awards, the Google Developer Challenge and others. The company's user application, SPB TV, is available on all mobile operating systems, and its viewing audience has reached 30 million worldwide. SPB TV is headquartered in Switzerland, with R&D headquarters in Russia and group affiliates in Asia and South America.